The Nightscape

Unflinching

Lyra stared up at the cloudless sky, her mind skittering around, lost in a fever and dancing around from thought to thought. She knew that she had to do something about the poison currently seeping into her veins, the green goo burning her flesh and tainting her blood, but she didn't actually know what she could do. Lyra tried to imagine separating out the poison from her blood, driving it back to the bites it had come in from and forcing it to seep back out, but when her eyes flicked to the hole in her arm, there was no trace of the substance leaving her body. Her eyes rolled back into her head and her vision went black. 

When she came around, the sun was setting, dusk creeping along the grasses of the plains she now found herself laying in. Her fever was gone, as were the pinpricks of pain all over her body. Slowly, she sat up, rubbing her eyes and looking around in confusion. On the horizon, she thought she could see the muddy green strip that was the swamp, though she couldn't remember how she had gotten here. A little way away from her was the corpse of some hulking creature with four wings and eight eyes and long, razor sharp claws. As she got up and walked a little closer, a cloud of fist sized insects with several wings and four long legs lifted from the thing's eyes and mouth, letting her see it more clearly. She couldn't see any wounds, or reasons it was dead, so she put it down to Zidros killing it off as she recovered. 

After all, no one else was around. No one who could have carried her away from the swamp, no one who could have killed a beast like that without leaving a mark, and no one who could have healed her so utterly in a few short hours. Lyra stretched, rubbing a crick from her neck, and turned in a slow circle, trying to figure out where exactly she was and what to do next. She paused, and decided to reach through her mind to try and contact Zidros. 

Did you save me, or was it Francine? She asked in her own mind, not sure if it would even reach him. When they spoke in the past, he had always contacted her, not the other way around. She didn't even know how to do it, just trying to think it loudly and picturing Zidros as she did it. For a long moment, there was only silence, and she thought that she had done something wrong, before the familiar juvenile voice rang out clear in her mind. 

I did, in a sense. Francine left you there to complete her mission because she thought you could heal yourself. When I realized that you hadn't, I healed you, and then possessed you to get you away from the swamp; it isn't a safe place to rest. The Cahtan came to attack you, so I dealt with him as well. He told her calmly, though he seemed a little distracted to her. Lyra imagined pushing into his head, curious as to what he was doing. At first, it was like trying to pry through a brick wall, before suddenly the resistance vanished and Lyra was in his head. 

He was in the library, standing over a furious Guy. She didn't know if he had been made an immortal yet, but it seemed unlikely that he hadn't been. But he was tied down now, yelling muffled threats through a gag and fighting to get through, glaring at Francine and Zidros. 

I thought I was immortal, so why did anyone need to save me? Also, what on earth are you doing to Guy? She asked him, feeling him wince. She was gently pushed out of his head and back into her own, leaving her standing, a little dizzy, in the middle of the field as Zidros answered. 

You are immortal, but that only kicks in when you 'die'. It isn't very pleasant, as you already know that you can still feel pain, so I stepped in to make it easier on you. When you come back, I can teach you how to do it for yourself instead. As for what I'm doing to Guy, nothing, actually. Francine put him asleep to bring him back, and I kept him under to make him immortal. He woke up and got very angry and upset, so I've decided to tie him down until he calms down. I tried to talk to him, but he kept swearing and calling me names and threatening me. When he stops doing that, I'll try to talk to him again. Zidros explained, his voice light hearted and more relaxed than it should be. But Lyra honestly didn't care enough to argue about Guy's treatment right now. He was out of her reach now, so he wasn't even useful to her anymore. Besides, if he was already immortal, then he would be fine in the long run.